SUPREME EMPIRE COUNCIL

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24027, 16 August 1943, Page 4

SUPREME EMPIRE COUNCIL

, w PROPOSAL BY MR , CURTIN GOVERNMENT AFTER THE WAR (Rec. 10 p.m.) ADELAIDE, Aug. » The setting up of a supreme Eropi** body to govern the entire British Empire after the war has been advocate® by the Australian Prime Minister (Mr J. Curtin). He said such a body wotild co-operate with the other Allied nations in post-war reconstruction. . j The statement is regarded as probably the most outspoken made by any Allied leader on conceptions of tl)» post-war world. He did not belieVß the Mother Country could manage thg Empire on the basis of a government sitting in London. If we could not have a supreme Empire body with executive powers, then we would have to have a consultative body, said Mf Curtin. All facilities of science, communications, and travel must be made available for frequent meeting and quick consultation on urgent matters. Denying that his appeal to the United States for assistance in 1941 was indicative of any lack of faith in Britain, the Prime Minister said: ‘T have the greatest admiration for all she hM done in this supreme struggle. But l knew she had her own problems to face, so could not give us any great i assistance.” . Discussing the post-war world, Mr Curtin said that if fresh rivalries ana conflicts were to be avoided, there must be a yielding of the intensely narrow nationalism that would P r £ v J?J: Australia from collaborating with tne United Nations, by whose sides she fought. There must also bo a of sovereignty. Mr^